< 160 Chapter 160: Morning After
160 Chapter 160: Morning After
Aria’s POV (1
I woke to the smell of burning toast and the sound of Damien cursing creatively in the kitchen. Sunlight streamed through the windows, warm and golden, and for a moment I just lay there, wrapped in his sheets, smiling at the ceiling.
This. This was happiness. I pulled on one of his shirts–a soft gray button–down that fell to mid–thigh–and padded barefoot to the kitchen.
The scene that greeted me was both endearing and slightly alarming. Damien stood shirtless in pajama pants, frowning at a pan full of what might have once been eggs but now resembled rubber. Smoke drifted from the toaster, and there was flour
everywhere, including in his hair.
“What are you doing?” I leaned against the doorframe, biting back a laugh.
He spun around, looking adorably flustered. “Making you breakfast. Or trying to, why is cooking so hard?”
“Because you’re terrible at it?” I moved into the kitchen, assessing the damage. “Damien, we have a chef. We could have just ordered something.”
“I wanted to do it myself.” He ran a hand through his flour–dusted hair, making it worse. “I wanted you to wake up to breakfast in bed like in the movies. But I” He gestured helplessly at the disaster zone. “I burned everything.”
“I can see that.” I rescued the toast from the toaster before it became charcoal. “But it’s sweet that you tried.”
“Sweet and unsuccessful.” He dumped the rubbery eggs into the trash. “I wanted this morning to be perfect. Wanted to–I don’t know. Show you that I can take care of you.” “Damien.” I turned to face him, my heart melting. “You do take care of me. In a thousand different ways. You don’t need to cook me breakfast to prove anything.”
“But I want to.” His voice was almost petulant. “I want to be good at domestic things. Want to make you pancakes and coffee and” He stopped. “I want to be the kind of partner who can do all of it. Business, romance and everyday stuff.”
“You are that partner” I moved closer, wrapping my arms around his waist. “You’re exactly the partner I need. Terrible cooking skills and all.”
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wn the kitchen w/med
Trobably the grinned. “Wet FW borgerying for you for Yo the Gathe
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fan heteween the two of us, we can met de portal He
We naturt? Familed apost his chest, PWW fugure out the ret
word like Haut for a long moment, worrying, snowy to my we w unrounded by the evidence of his failed treats an
I love you in my shurt he said suddenly, “You should wear my love me tent
move
Poserseive mucly?” But I was smiling
Aberdutely The hands slid down to wrap my hips. “Seeing you in my start, w my fatehen, in my life it does things to me?
“Thing Hooked up at him, seeing beat building in his eyes. “What kind of thing “The land that makes me want to pick you up, put you on this counter, mud The phone rang, interrupting whatever he was about to say. We both groaned.
more it I suggested.
“It might be about Houl” He reinetantly pulled away to grab his phone. “Heller
I watched his expression shift from frustration to warmth to amusement, all in the space of about threw unconds.
Cinnd morning, Mire born” & pause “190, not at all we were wake? He caught my eye and had the decency to look only slightly pully about that particular be. How is
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160 Chapter 160: Morning After
He listened, and the amusement on his face deepened into something softer. “Of course. Yes. We’ll be there within the hour.” Another pause, and he laughed genuinely and quietly. “We’ll bring them. Yes. See you soon.”
He hung up and looked at me with that expression he still sometimes got, like fatherhood was a thing that kept catching him pleasantly off guard. “She called to ask when we were coming,” he said. “And to report that Noah has been up since six, has eaten breakfast, reorganized her entire bookshelf by color, and is currently ” he checked his phone for the time “attempting to teach Theo’s goldfish to do tricks.”
I pressed my hand over my mouth. “The poor fish.”
“Mrs. Dora seemed more amused than concerned.” He set the phone on the counter.
“She also said, and I quote ” he adopted her no–nonsense tone with surprising accuracy ” ‘Tell Miss Aria I hope she got some proper rest, the boy has been enough excitement for all of us.”
I burst out laughing. “She knows.”
“Mrs. Dora knows everything.” He pulled me back into his arms without missing a beat, his chin dropping to the top of my head. “She has worked for this family long enough. Nothing surprises that woman.”
“That’s both reassuring and mortifying.”
“Mostly reassuring.” His hands were warm at my back. “She also said to bring pastries from the bakery on Clement Street. Apparently Noah told her you always bring the ones with the almond cream when you’ve had a very good day.”
I pulled back to look at him. “He said that?”
“Apparently he’s been paying very close attention to your moods.” Damien’s eyes were warm with quiet delight. “We are raising a remarkably perceptive child.”
“We are raising a child who is going to be absolutely insufferable as a teenager,” I said.
“Also true.” He kissed my forehead. “We should get up. Get dressed. Go collect our son before he dismantles Mrs. Dora’s entire house.”
“Give me twenty minutes to shower and make myself presentable.”
“Want company?” His hands slid under the shirt, warm against my skin.
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160 Chapter 160 Morning After
“Damien. But I was already melting into him. “We don’t have time for–oh.
His mouth found that spot on my neck that made my knees entirely unreliable. “We can make time. Quick showers are also very efficient.”
“Efficient.” I gasped as his hands wandered. “Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Would you prefer ‘necessary? He was already walking me backward toward the bathroom. “Because Aria. I need you. One more time before we go back to being responsible parents.”
“One more time, I agreed, pulling him with me. “But we have to be quick”
We were not quick. By the time we finished in the shower and then again against the bathroom counter because apparently neither of us had any self–control whatsoever we were very definitely running late.
“Mrs. Dora is going to know exactly what we were doing.” I said as we rushed to get dressed.
“Mrs. Dora already knows.” Damien buttoned his shirt with considerably more calm than the situation warranted. “She factored it into the timeline. That’s why she said within the hour and not right away.”
I stopped with one shoe on. “You think she gave us extra time on purpose?”
“I think Mrs. Dora has been quietly managing this household since before I knew what I wanted.” He crossed over and crouched to help me with my shoe, easy and unhurried, like we had all the time in the world. “And I think she is very glad we figured it out.”
I looked down at him, this man on one knee at the foot of our bed, doing up my shoe like it was the most natural thing, and something in my chest pulled tight and sweet. “We should go.” I said softly.
He looked up. Something in his eyes said he understood that I wasn’t just talking about Noah. “Yeah.” He stood, took my hand. “Let’s go get our boy.”
Dora House
We drove through Ravenwood’s quieter streets to collect Noah from Mrs. Dora’s.
We could hear them before the door even opened.“MAMA!”
Noah shot through the doorway the moment it swung open, a small chaos of messy curls and mismatched socks, colliding with my legs at full speed. I caught him on
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< 160 Chapter 160: Morning After
instinct, hauling him up and squeezing tight while he wrapped himself around me like a koala with no intention of letting go. “Hi, baby.” I pressed my face into his curls. “Did you have fun?”
“So much fun.” He pulled back to look at me with the gravity of someone delivering a full news report. “Theo and I built the biggest fort and Mrs. Dora and her sister made us hot chocolate with the little marshmallows, the good ones, Mama, not the plain ones and then we fought dragons until we fell asleep. Real ones.”
“Real dragons,” I said seriously.
“Enormous.” He spread both arms as wide as they would go. “But we won because of the fort. Theo said next time we should add a moat.”
“Smart thinking,” Damien said from beside me.
Noah turned to him with shining eyes. “Can Theo come to our house next time, Daddy? So we can show him the dinosaurs and build an even bigger fort? A better
one?”
“Absolutely,” Damien said, without a moment’s hesitation.
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